LOS ANGELES, January 23, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) ― One of the founders of an online magazine about LGBT athletes is calling a male mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter who claims to be female “the bravest athlete in history” for destroying real women in the fighting cage.
On January 14, Cyd Zeigler Jr. wrote in the online Outsports that he had titled the final chapter of his book on LGBT athletes “Fallon Fox Is The Bravest Athlete In History” and that this remained true for him four years later. The sportswriter was unclear about his reasons for Canada's Post Millennial took issue yesterday with the idea that it is brave for biological males to fight biological females and underscored the damage that Fox, 44, had done to one female opponent:
Fox, a male to female transgender athlete, destroyed Erika Newsome in a Coral Gables, FL, MMA fight during which she “secured a grip on Newsome’s head … With her hands gripping the back of Newsome’s skull, she delivered a massive knee, bringing her leg up while pulling her opponent’s head down. The blow landed on Newsome’s chin and dropped her, unconscious, face-first on the mat.” That was Newsome’s last pro fight.
“But to Outsports, a male-bodied person beating a female bodied person unconscious constitutes bravery,” Emmons added (watch the fight here.)
Zeigler argued in his piece that broken bones and concussions are all part of the sport.
“One of the lasting moments from Fox’s career is a fight that has been twisted by anti-trans forces to paint her as a criminal assailant,” Zeigler wrote.
“During (his) fight against Tamikka Brents, Brents suffered a broken orbital and a concussion,” he continued.
“Broken bones and concussions are not uncommon in MMA.”
He believes that the subsequent headline “Transgender MMA Fighter Breaks Skull of Her Female Opponent” was part of a campaign by people who object to transgender athletes in women’s sports to blame “Fox being trans” for Brents’ injuries..
Emmons reported that Brents had not been informed her opponent was a biological male. In a post-fight interview, the woman told an interviewer, “I've never felt so overpowered ever in my life.”
“I’ve fought a lot of women and have never felt the strength that I felt in a fight as I did that night,” she continued.
“I can’t answer whether it’s because (Fox) was born a man or not, because I’m not a doctor. I can only say, I’ve never felt so overpowered ever in my life, and I am an abnormally strong female in my own right. ”
The choice of Fallon Fox as the bravest athlete in history is a curious one, given the number of candidates for that title. To offer only one example, to this day Scotland honors the memory of one of her favorite sporting sons, Olympic gold-medal winning runner Eric Liddell. In a dramatic decision portrayed in the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire, the Presbyterian Liddell refused to compete in the 1924 Summer Olympic race he was deemed most likely to win, the 100 meters, because it was held on a Sunday. Instead, he competed in the 400 meters and won.
However, Liddell’s insistence on keeping the Scottish Sabbath in Paris while resisting pressure from the British Olympic Committee was not the only evidence of his moral courage. Liddell, the son of Scottish missionaries to China, became a missionary there himself and refused to abandon his post even when invasion by Japan was imminent and Britons were advised to leave. In 1943, Liddell was arrested by the Japanese and sent to Weihsien Internment Camp, where he continued his ministry. Weakened by overwork and the poor conditions for prisoners in the camp, Liddell died there in 1945 at age 43.
Liddell might not have been the bravest athlete in history, but he is certainly a better contender for the title than Fallon Fox.
